Heating apparatus



Aug. 25, 1959 J. A. SISTO ETAL HEATING APPARATUS Filed June 17 INVENTORS. JOSEPH A. SISTO JOHN MILOS L ,xwW

ATTORNEY.

Uflitfid tes Patent HEATING APPARATUS, Joseph sum, s-oumomn e, NJ., and John Milos, Phoenixville, Pa., assign'ors to Barium Steel Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Application June 17, 1953, Serial No. 362,293 4 Claims. (Cl. 263--44) Ordinarily a number of ingots are placed in alarge furnace known as. a, soaking pitandleft therefor many hourswhile: they are being brought up totempera-ture. This method of heating is costly in time, fuel and equip: inent. More important, however, is the lack, of flexibility of a soaking pit with the resulting overheatingof ingots and excessive scaleloss.

In accordance. with the, present invention. a plurality of ingots to be heated are placed in a relatively narrow and elongated furnace having. radiantwalls. .In some cases, theingots may be placed on cars andmovedone after the other through the furnace chamber, andfin others. thoingot is located in a fixed, position intheifun nace. In either case, the ingotsare mounted upon water cooled supports or piers so that their entiresurface is subjected to the heat of the furnace.

'It is an objectof the invention to provide supporting ingots as .they are being heated. which come prises a plurality of water cooled supports or piers upon which each ingot rests; It is. a further object oftheinvention to providemeans for circulatingwater, or other cooling fluid, through. the ingot supports during the time that the ingots are being heated inthe furnace.

It is -a further and more specificobject of the invert-- tion to provide means, to supply the cooling water for the ingot supports in any position of an ingot supporting car in its. path of travel to and through. the ingot ,heating; furnace.

It is a further object of the invention toprovide a plurality of separate vertically extending supports upon which an ingot reslts while, it is. 'beingrheated, each of;

the supports being individually adjusted so that they can compensate for unevenness of the supporting surface of the ingot.

The various. features of novelty which characterize our invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims ahne'xedto and .forminga of thi's specification. For a better understanding of the invention, however its advantages and specific objects attained with its use, reference should-be had to the accompanying drawings and -'descr-iptive matter in which have illustrated and described. "a preferred embodiment of 'the invention.

:In the drawings:

Figure its :a sectional. viewshowing one form of "the furnace with which ingot supportsmaw be used;

Figure 2 is a sectional view showing. a form of. the inmates having a'car-bottom; l

Figure 3 is a plan view of an ingot support;

Figure 4 is a section taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3; and

means for- Figure 5 is a view of. a modified form of ingot support.

Referring to the. drawings, there is shown in Figure. 1.,

a. furnace having side wa1ls2 and a floor 3 which is in the form of a narrow chamber only slightly larger in width than the width of the piece to be heated. The walls are bridged by a removable roof or cover 4 to. form a chamber -5 in which a work piece 6, shown herein as an ingot, is placed to be heated. The walls, fi'oor and cover are made in accordance with ordinary furnace. practice and comprise a refractory material, that may be either brick or cast, which is suitable to withstand the temperatures that are encountered and which is backed up with sheet steel. The walls are held rigidly in position by reinforcing members 7 while the floor is supported by horizontally extending. beams 8. The floor includes a plurality of plates 9 resting on the beams 8 that serve to. support theweight of the ingots being heated. Each of these plates has mounted upon it a plurality of ingot supports 11 which will be described in detail below. Each wall of the furnace has in it and forming a part thereof a plurality of burners that are preferably of the, radiant cup type shown in Furczyk Patent 2,561,793. These burners include a refractory burner block 12 that is. provided o its face in the furnace chamber with a cup shaped depression 13. Extending into the base of this depression is a distributor member 14 through which gas and air. are supplied. to be burned as a combustiblemixture along the surface ofthe cup and heat the same; to incandescence. The work is heated by radiant heat projected from the burner cups and the hot products of combustion. It is noted that access to the .furnacechamb'er may be obtained by removing the cover 4 with the help of rings 15 or other suitable lifting fixtures so that ingots may be lowered into the. furnace for heating and removed therefrom after they have been heated.

The furnace shown in Figure 2 is generally similar to that of Figure 1 except that in this, case the topis not removable. In this case, the floor of the furnace: is formed by cars uponwhich the ingotsupports 11 are.

pieced. As shown herein, the floor of the furnace is formed by one or more cars 16 that have at-refractory. floor 17 built thereon. Mounted on the ear and below. the refractory of the floor, as previously described, is

the plate 9 which supports the weight of the ingots. In

this case, the furnace is narrow car is mounted on wheels 19 and, with the ingots thereon, is moved lengthwise of the. furnace along rails 21. A seal in the form of a sand sealis provided betweeneach edge of the car and the lower ends of the walls '2. of the furnace. To this end, the side edges of. the car are. formed as channels 22 into which flanges 23 extend from the lower sides of the furnace walls. When the channel is filled with sand, or a similar material, air infiltration into the. furnace is prevented.

The plates 9'in the floor 3 of the furnace of Figure 1 and on the floor l7 of the car in FigureZ, and the ingot supports are best shown in Figures 3 and,4.- Referring to those figures, it will1be seen that there are provided a plurality of bloc-ks 25 attached to the plate and held rigidly inposi't-ion thereof by gusjsets 26. In this case,- there are shown four supports 11 upon which each of the. ingots will rest. Rigi'dly attached "to and extending ver daily from each block 25 is a cylindrical member 27 that has a cap 28 on the upperend thereof. It will be seen. that these members are embedded fOlflmOS'C of, their height in therefractory material with which the floor of the furnace or the car, as the case may be, is lined and are therefore protected except at the upper end from the heat of the furnace. An overflow pipe 29 is located in each of the members 27, and is threaded at its lower end to the block 25. The interior of each pipe 29 communicates with a passage 31 in the block.

and, tunnel shaped. The

Cooling water is supplied to the members 27 above the blocks 25. When the Water has risen in the members to the heightof pipe 29 the water overflows and is discharged through passage 31. The outlet from this passage is connected by a pipe 32, embedded in the floor refractory, with the inlet to an adjacent member 27. Initially cooling water is supplied to one of the members 27 from a suitable source of supply by means of an intake pipe 33 and a pump 34 attached to the bottom of the plate 9. Water from the pump flows through a pipe 35 to the interior of one of the members 27. As this member is filled with Water, the overflow therefrom passes through pipes 29 and 32 to the next member 27. The water passes in series through each of the ingot supports and is eventually discharged from the last one through a discharge pipe 36 that extends downwardly below the floor of the furnace. I

In the event that the water cooled ingot supports are being used with a car that is moving through a furnace, there is provided a pair of channels which extend, for example, parallel to and between the tracks 21, and into which the pipes 33 and 36 extend. As is shown in Figure 2, the intake pipe 33 draws water from a channel 37 through which Water is continually pumped. The outlet pipe 36 discharges into an adjacent channel 38.

Ordinarily, the bottoms of the ingots will be level enough so that they can be supported on four of the caps 28 as shown in dotted lines in Figure 3. If necessary, due to unevenness of the bottom, the ingots can be turned, as is also shown in dotted lines in Figure 3, so that they are supported on three of the caps 28. In some cases, however, the bottom of the ingots may be so irregular that it is necessary to adjust one or more of the supports vertically in order to maintain the ingots in an upright position while they are being heated. Provisions for adjusting the supports are shown in Figure of the drawings. Each support may be adjusted individually.

Referring to Figure 5, it will be seen that the plate 9 forming the bottom of the furnace is provided with a downwardly extending U-shaped brace 39. Between this brace and the lower surface of the floor 9, there are provided a pair of spacers 41 which receive between them a worm wheel 42. The interior of this worm wheel is provided with threads that are in engagement with a threaded portion 49 of a vertically movable support 43. Member 27 is fastened to the upper end of support 43, as also is the discharge pipe 29. The support 43 is mounted for sliding movement in bearings 44 and 45 formed respectively in the plate 9 and the brace 39 and which have suitable keys in them to prevent rotation of support 43. In order to adjust the height of the support 43 and thereby the vertical position of cap 28, the worm wheel 42 is rotated by a worth 48 suitably journaled in one of the arms of the brace 39. This support 43 is moved vertically as worm wheel 42 is rotated. It is noted that in this case, the intake pipe 46 and the outlet pipe 47 for the cooling water come in through the bottom of the member 43 and the water passes through suitable passages formed in that member.

From the above description, it will be seen-that We have provided water cooled ingot supports that extend into a furnace and upon which ingots or other work pieces may be supported while they are being heated. Supports of this type have almost a point contact with the work piece so that they will have no appreciable cooling effect thereon but they are strong enough to sustain a heavy load in a high temperature furnace be cause they are continuously cooled. They also serve to hold the work piece above the surface of the floor so supports adjusted vertically. In either event, the ingots are held above the surface of the furnace floor while they are being heated.

While in accordance with the provisions of the statutes, we have illustrated and described the best form of embodiment of our invention now known to us it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the form of the apparatus disclosed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims, and that in some cases certain features of our invention may be used to advantage without a corresponding use of other features;

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for use in the heating of ingots comprising a furnace having a floor therein, a plurality of vertically extending ingot supports attached to said floor, each of said supports comprising a tubular memher having a closed upper end upon which the ingot rests, a pipe extending through said member and terminating adjacent to the interior of said closed end, means to supply cooling water to one of said tubular members, means to connect one of said pipes to a discharge, means to connect the rest of said plurality of members to the rest of said plurality of pipes, whereby cooling water will flow in series through said tubular members and pipes from the supply to the discharge.

2. The combination of claim 1 including means to adjust vertically said supports with respect to said floor.

3. Apparatus for use in the heating of ingots comprising in combination a car having a bed, a track forming a path along which said car travels, an ingot support attached to and extending upwardly from said bed, said support including a tubular member having a closed upper end, a pipe extending through said member and terminating adjacent to the interior of said closed end, a channel for cooling water and a channel for exhaust water, said channels being parallel to each other and extending parallel to said track, means to draw water from said first channel and supply it to the interior of said member, said water overflowing through said pipe and means to direct the overflow to said second channel.

4. The combination of claim 3 in which said car has a plurality of identical supports, the means to draw water supplying it to one member, means to direct the over flow from the pipe in said member to another member and so on, the overflow from the pipe in the last member to be supplied being connected to said means to direct the overflow to said second channel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,694,684 Cope Dec. 11, 1928 1,865,954 Porvers July 5, 1932 1,963,242 Nelson June 19, 1934 1,963,846 Ipsen et al. June 19, 1934 2,022,649 Corriston Dec. 3, 1945 2,592,236 Bloom Apr. 8, 1952 2,652, 40 Nesbitt Sept. 15, 1953 2,677,538 Blaus et al. May 4, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 327,089 Germany Oct. 8, 1920 

